6.01.2009

A Father's Place

A Father's Place

Dads explain what’s fair or unfair and moms decide when it is okay to go out and play. When she tells her friend she has to go in but goes out five minutes later to play with someone else, Dad says how would you feel if they did that to you? She knows how she would feel and pledges not to do it again. But dad knows that she will, and when she does, she’ll remember what her dad said. Maybe.

Dads are their children’s protectors. Dads chase the mon¬sters out of the closet at night. Dads have a special hug that resolves a nightmare’s terror. Dads are as tall as the sky and can reach the cookies moms hide on the top shelf.

Dads have to be dads sometimes. That means they have to yell and maybe spank. Any child can tell you that nobody hits as hard as daddies can. Not even Grandpa. Yet after every repri¬mand comes the guilt of being a daddy. Dads want to be kids, but too often get trapped into being adults.

Dads are as old as forever. They listen to ‘old people’ music like Led Zeppelin and the Beatles. Their car radios are set to all¬ talk stations. Yet, with their own children, dads are forever young. They play horse, hide and seek and checkers when they are in the mood and decide to make time. Dads don’t like to play checkers too much because they lose a lot.
On a hot summer day, dads will chase you around with a water pistol, and sometimes even let you sneak up on them with the garden hose.
Dads have the largest, strongest hands in the world. Little girls in their cradles tightly grab their dad’s index finger and it’s as big as the world outside. But for dads, they see that those small hands hold so much. They hold the future and all dad’s hopes. They instill the fear of God in Dad when he senses the responsi¬bility in that precious grip.

Dads fix everything. But, what they actually do is take it to their side of the basement and shelve it until everyone forgets whatever it was that was broken.
from A Father's Place, an Eclectic Collectionby Anthony Buccino